PEDIGREE. 231 



ority of their descent, but in turn honored and 

 dignified it. The Princess family has the pres- 

 tige of being probably the most ancient, in so 

 far as records go, of all the Short-horn families; 

 while the Gwynnes as a sub-family of special 

 merit have added a new distinction to their 

 glory of lineage. 



It is not surprising, then, that in the direct 

 female line should now be sought the special 

 family character. Nevertheless, though it is 

 so natural, it is very apt to prove a snare to 

 catch the unwary. In the first place it distracts 

 the mind from a careful estimate of every ele- 

 ment in the pedigree to a single one. I have 

 seen countless instances of poorly informed 

 breeders valuing animals that were not even 

 pure-bred in the most exalted way because 

 they traced in the direct line to some cele- 

 brated cow. Few who have not had special 

 dealing with pedigrees would imagine how 

 common it is to find animals with a bad cross 

 in the bulls near the top tracing to the most 

 valuable families. This was at one time made 

 easy by the fact that forgeries, loss of records, 

 and similar defects abounded. In later years 

 these matters are more carefully looked after 

 and the records are kept pretty clean, but still 

 many animals with one or two bad crosses half 

 a dozen generations back are by no means un- 

 common. And by using a bull with a single 



